Car coupler



- May 12, 1942. w.- J. METZGER CAR COUPLER Filed (Jan. 26, 1940 2Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR William J. Metz BY aged/t ATTORN EY May 12,1942. w. J. METZGER CAR COUPLER Filed Jan. 26, 1940 2 Sheets-Sheet 2INVENTOR WilliamJMelz er BY Mi ATTORNEY Patented May 12, 1942 K UNHTEDS'IA'EES PATENT .OFFIQE- CAR COUPLER William J.'Metzger, Cleveland,Ohio, assignor to National Malleable and Steel Castings Company,Cleveland, Ohio, a corporation of Ohio Application January 26, 1940,Serial No. 315,768 2 Claims. (61. 213- 142 Y This invention relates toimprovements in couplers for railway cars and more particularly to meansfor retarding movement of the coupler knuckle of its own momentum fromopen to closed position.

In the past, couplers have been damaged due to miscoupling caused by thecouplers being either partly or full closed when the cars came together.This damage has occurred particularly during classification of cars inthe railroad yards or during shunting of cars when trains were beingassembled or disassembled. In either instance, when a car is coastingdown thetrack toward standing cars, unless the speed of. the car isreduced by a brakeman or by car retarders before it reaches-the others,it may strike them with an impact sumcient to close or partly close thecoupler knuckle at the other end of the car, assuming that said knucklehad been in open position. Subsequently, when another car coasts downthe track towardsaid firstcar,

, if its forward knuckle is closed, the approaching couplers may notcouple 'due to the partly or fully closed knuckle of the first car, andif the impact is great enough, serious damage to the couplers mayresult. Accordingly, an object of my invention is the provision of aknuckle adapted to cooperate with the lock of the coupler in such a,manner that upon normal impact of a coasting car with a standing car anopen coupler knuckle at the free end of the .former car will not movetoward closed position so as to preclude normal couplingof said couplerwith a coupler whose knuckle is closed. A more specific object is toprovide abutment means on the knuckle tail adapted to cooperate with thelock of the coupler, to provide sufficient resistance to closing of theknuckle so that said knuckle will not close when the car is subjected toa longitudinal impact, as would ordinarily close the knuckle of its owninertia.

A feature of m invention which results from retarding the movement of anopen knuckle toward closed position is that the normal gathering rangeof the coupler is thereby increased, and thus coupling of couplers maybe effected under conditions which otherwise would have precludedcoupling. Other objects and advantages of my invention will be apparentfrom the following description taken in conjunction with the drawings,in which:

Figure 1 is a horizontal sectional view of a coupler embodying myinvention, the knuckle being shown in full thrown position.

FigureZ is a View similar to Fig. 1, with the V knuckle in closedposition.

Figure 3 is a vertical sectional view of the coupler showing the knucklein full thrown posi- 'tion.

Figure 4 is a vertical sectional view taken alon line 44 of Fig. 3.

Figure 5 is an isometric view of a knuckle tail embodying my invention.

Figure 6' is a view illustrating the gathering range of couplersembodying my invention, one knuckle being closed and the othersubstantially open; and

Figure 7 is anotherview illustrating the gathering range of couplersembodying my invention.

Referring to the drawings, there is shown a coupler head [0 having aknuckle ll pivotally attached thereto by means of a pin I2. The knuckleis adapted to be moved from closed to open position by means of athrower 13, the

forward arm M of which engages an abutment IS on the knuckle during theopening movement.

'The thrower is actuated by leg l6 of lock ll.

When the lock is raised by means of link members l8 and I9, the fulcrumportion 20 engages wall 2| of the coupler, and upon furtherupwardmovement of the links the lock is caused to pivot about said fulcrum.Leg I6 is thereby swung rearwardly into engagement with arm 22 of thethrower, thus imparting rotational movement thereto and causing arm M toswing the knuckle open. As shown in Fig. 3, the knuckle has been fullyopened and the lock and litter links have assumed reposed positions.

.In accordance with my invention the knuckle tail is provided in its topsurface with an abutment 23 which is adapted to engage the portion 24 ofthelock upon movement of the knuckle from open toward closed position.As the lock must be raised over abutment 23 before the knuckle can beclosed, it will be evident that the frictional force developed betweenthe lock and the abutment will act to oppose or retard movement of theknuckle toward closed position. The

degree of slopeand height of the abutment may of course be varieddepending on whether more or less retarding force is desired. With theknuckle in fully opened position, as shown in Fig. 1, there is aclearance between portion 24 of the lock and abutment 23. This is sothat in case the knuckle is not thrown completely open during theuncoupling operation, the lock will still come to rest with portion 24in front of abutment 23 and will engage the lock upon movement of theknuckle toward closed position. The amount of the aforementionedclearance between the abutment and the lock may be varied depending uponwhether it is desired to have the retardation of the knuckle occurimmediately at the start of closing of the knuckle or after the knucklehas been closed a predetermined amount. Surface 25 of the knuckle'tailis sloped so as to correspond to the slope of under surface 26 of thelock thereby effecting full contact therebetween. However, I do not wishto limit my invention to the aforesaid surface contact between the lockand tail as it is not essential or necessary that such contact beprovided. Surface 25 in addition to sloping downwardly toward the end ofthe tail also slopes downwardly laterally of said tail so thatimmediatel at the start of closing of the knuckle the lock travelsuphill with respect to the tail and thus a certain amount of retardingaction is developed before'engagement between the abutment 23 and thelock occurs. It will be noted that abutment23 slopes away from lockportion 24 when the knuckle is in open position. Furthermore, when the.knuckle is in the position in which the abutment and lock are inengagement, the surface of said abutment extends generally in the samedirection as the portion of the lock in engagement therewith, and in theembodiment shown, lies in a plane substantially parallel to thelongitudinal center line of the coupler, as may be seen particularly inFigs. 6 and 7, in which thecenter lines of the couplers are indicated ata and b.

With my invention applied to a coupler, when the coupler is subjected toa longitudinal force, as would tend to cause the knuckle to swing towardclosed position of its own inertia, the cooperation between abutment 23and the lock will effectively preclude closing of the knuckle andprevent the danger of miscoupling as might subsequently occur'if theknuckle were closed. It is to be understood, however, that my inventionnowise hinders the coupling of cars as the resistance to closing of theknuckle is'negligible in comparison to the force urging the couplerstogether when two cars are coupled. Insofar as the primary object of myinvention is concerned, the resistance to closing of the knuckle affectsonly the coupler at the end of the car opposite from the end which isbeing coupled.

The increase in gathering range ofcouplers embodying my invention may beexplained in connection with Figs. 6 and 7. In each of these views thecoupler A has its knuckle closed while the knuckle of the coupler B isin open position, with abutment 23 of the knuckle in engagement with thelock portion 24. Referring to Fig. 6 in which the knuckle noses are inengagement, the couplers have been angled to the limit of the gatheringrange to which couplers not embodying my invention may be angled. Uponrelative 1ongitudinal movement of the couplers toward each other, theopen knuckle will so remain until the nose of the other knuckle has slidpast the nose of the open knuckle and into position in which couplingmay be effected. Coupling is thus possible due to the fact that thefrictional resistance between the knuckle noses is less than theresistance to closing of the open knuckle. However, if

couplers not embodying my invention are angled any amount past thepositions shown, they cannot couple since the frictional resistancebetween the noses will be greater than the resistance to closing of theknuckle. In such case, as the couplers approach each other the knucklewill be pivoted to closed position without embracing the closed knuckle.Therefore, it will be clear that by increasing the resistance to closingof the open knuckle, as is provided for in couplers embodyingmyinvention, the knuckle noses, if they have not been angled too farpast the positions shown, may slide past each other so as to permitcoupling. In Fig. '7 where the couplers are shown angled in the oppositedirection, the gathering range has also been increased. In this positionif the frictional-resistance between the guard arm and the knuckle noseis less than the resistance to closing of the knuckle, coupling may beeffected, as upon relative longitudinal movement between the couplersthey will be moved laterally relative to each other the amount necessaryto be in position to couple. Accordingly, with couplers embodying myinvention, since the resistance to closing of the knuckle has beenincreased, the couplers may be angled an amount greater than ordinarilyso long as the frictional resistance between the guard arm and the noseof the open knuckle remains less than the resistance to closing of saidknuckle.

The terms and expressions which I have employed are used as terms ofdescription and not of limitation, and I have no intention, in the useof such terms and expressions, of excluding any equivalents of thefeatures shown and described or portions thereof, but recognize thatvarious modifications are possible within the scope of the inventionclaimed.

What I claim is:

1. A car coupler having a head, a knuckle pivoted to said head andhaving a tail, a lock for said knuckle, said look when said knuckle isin open position being supported solely by said tail, and abruptlyinclined abutment means on said tail being so disposed thereon thatafter a predetermined amount of movement of said knuckle from opentoward closed position unrestricted by said abutment means said means isadapted to engage said lock to retard further closing of said knuckleexcept under the action of a positive closing force applied directly tothe knuckle.

2. A coupler for railway car including a head, a knuckle pivoted to saidhead and having a tail, a lock for said knuckle, said look when saidknuckle is in open position being supported solely by said tail, saidtail having a substantially flat surface underlying said lock when saidknuckle is open, said surface terminating in anabrupt inclinedabutment-"adapted to engage said lock and arrest movement of saidknuckle to preclude closing of said knuckle when the other end of thecar is subjected to a longitudinal impact as would cause an ordinaryknuckle to close of its own inertia yet allowing closing of the knuckleunder a positive closing force applied directly to the knuckle.

WILLIAM J. METZGER.

